Method for producing silica aerogel and silica aerogel produced thereby

ABSTRACT

Provided is a silica aerogel with enhanced physical properties. The silica aerogel can have a tap density of 0.030 to 0.070 g/mL, and a carbon content of 11.2 to 12.1 wt %.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of allowed co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/768,995, which is the National Stage Application of International Application No. PCT/KR2017/009769 filed on Sep. 6, 2017, which claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0117520, filed on Sep. 12, 2016, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for producing a silica aerogel, and a silica aerogel produced thereby.

BACKGROUND

An aerogel is a superporous, high specific surface area (500 m²/g) material having a porosity of about 90 to 99.9% and a pore size in the range of 1 to 100 nm, and is a material excellent in ultra-light weight, super thermal insulation, ultra-low dielectric, and the like. Accordingly, research on the development of aerogel materials as well as research on the practical use thereof as transparent insulation materials, environmentally friendly high temperature insulation materials, ultra-low dielectric thin films for highly integrated devices, catalysts and catalyst carriers, electrodes for supercapacitors, and electrode materials for seawater desalination have been actively studied.

The biggest advantage of the aerogel is that the aerogel has a super-insulation exhibiting a thermal conductivity of 0.300 W/m·K or less, which is lower than that of an organic insulation material such as conventional Styrofoam, and that fire vulnerability and the occurrence of harmful gases in case of fire which are fatal weaknesses of the organic insulation material can be solved.

In general, the aerogel is produced by preparing a hydrogel from a silica precursor such as water glass and alkoxysilane series (TEOS, TMOS, MTMS, etc.), and removing a liquid component inside the hydrogel without destroying a microstructure. The typical form of a silica aerogel may be classified into three types, i.e., powder, granule, and monolith, and the silica aerogel is generally produced in the form of powder.

Meanwhile, when the silica aerogel absorbs moisture, the characteristics and physical properties of a gel structure are deteriorated. Therefore, in order to easily use the silica aerogel in industries, a method which is capable of permanently preventing moisture in the air from being absorbed is required. Accordingly, methods for producing a silica aerogel having permanent hydrophobicity by hydrophobizing the surface thereof have been proposed.

Accordingly, the silica aerogel is generally produced by a sol-gel method in which sol formation, hydrogel formation, aging, solvent exchange, surface modification, and drying are carried out.

However, the sol-gel method requires a very complicated process and requires much cost and time, thus deteriorating the productivity and economical efficiency of the silica aerogel. Therefore, the development of a novel method for producing a silica aerogel having better physical properties by a simpler process is required.

PRIOR ART DOCUMENT [Patent Document 1]

Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2015-0093123 (published on Aug. 17, 2015)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION Technical Problem

An aspect of the present invention provides a method for producing a silica, wherein the method provides excellent productivity and economical efficiency due to a simple production process, and is capable of forming a silica aerogel having enhanced mechanical properties to increase the resistance to shrinkage during ambient drying, thereby forming a low-density silica aerogel, and is also capable of controlling the concentration of the first and second water glass solutions to control the physical properties of the silica aerogel.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a silica aerogel produced by the above-described method.

Technical Solution

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for preparing a silica aerogel including the steps of 1) adding a first water glass solution and an acid catalyst to a reactor to form a first silica wet gel; 2) adding a second water glass solution and an acid catalyst to the first silica wet gel; 3) adding a surface modifier solution to the first silica wet gel to form a second silica wet gel; and 4) drying a silica wet gel including the first silica wet gel and the second silica wet gel.

In addition, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a silica aerogel produced by the above-described method.

Advantageous Effects

In a method for producing a silica aerogel according to the present invention, gelation, solvent exchange, and surface modification may be simultaneously performed during a single step, and thus the production time is shortened to provide excellent productivity and economical efficiency.

In addition, a first silica wet gel is first formed, and thereafter the first silica wet gel is used as a basic skeleton to which a second silica wet gel is then organically bonded, thereby forming a silica aerogel having enhanced mechanical properties. Accordingly, the resistance to shrinkage in ambient drying may be increased to form a silica aerogel having a low density.

Furthermore, there is an effect in that the physical properties of the silica aerogel may be controlled by controlling the concentration of a silica precursor added in each step.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail to allow for a clearer understanding of the present invention. In this case, it will be understood that words or terms used in the specification and claims shall not be interpreted as the meaning defined in commonly used dictionaries. It will be further understood that the words or terms should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the technical idea of the invention, based on the principle that an inventor may properly define the meaning of the words or terms to best explain the invention.

Generally, in the production of a silica aerogel, drying technology for removing a solvent while maintaining a pore structure of a wet gel without any change and mass production technology having economical efficiency are the most essential technologies.

A silica wet gel produced by using water glass is shaped such that pores thereof are filled with water which is a solvent. Simply drying and removing the solvent, causes a pore structure to easily shrink and crack due to a solvent extraction rate difference and a capillary force caused by a high surface tension of water at the gas/liquid interface while the solvent in a liquid phase is vaporized to a gas phase. This leads to a reduction in surface area and a change in pore structure. Thus, in order to maintain the pore structure of the wet gel, it is necessary to exchange water having a relatively high surface tension with an organic solvent having a relatively low surface tension, and also a technique is required which is capable of washing and drying the wet gel without shrinkage while maintaining the structure of the wet gel without any change.

In addition, the dried silica aerogel maintains a low thermal conductivity just after drying, but absorbs water in the air due to the hydrophilicity of a silanol group (Si—OH) on the silica surface, so that there is a disadvantage that the nanopore structure is shrunk due to the condensation reaction of the silanol group, and the thermal conductivity gradually increases. Therefore, in order to maintain a low thermal conductivity, the surface of the silica aerogel needs to be modified to have a hydrophobicity. Accordingly, a method for modifying the surface of the silica aerogel so as to have a hydrophobicity by using a surface modifier is widely used. However, there is a problem in that a high unit price of the surface modifier and a difficulty in controlling the surface modification reaction result in poor productivity.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for producing a low-density hydrophobic silica aerogel, which is excellent in productivity and economical efficiency and is capable of enhancing the mechanical properties of the silica aerogel.

Hereinafter, a method for producing a silica aerogel according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

A method for producing a silica aerogel according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: 1) adding a first water glass solution and an acid catalyst to the reactor to form a first silica wet gel; 2) adding a second water glass solution and an acid catalyst to the first silica wet gel; 3) adding a surface modifier solution to the first silica wet gel to form a second silica wet gel; and 4) drying a silica wet gel including the first silica wet gel and the second silica wet gel.

Step 1) according to an embodiment of the present invention is a step of forming the first silica wet gel, and may be specifically a step of adding an acid catalyst to the first water glass solution in the reactor to cause a reaction under the condition that the acidity (pH) is in the range of 4 to 7.

Here, the reaction may indicate a sol-gel reaction, and the sol-gel reaction may allow a network structure to be formed from a silica precursor material. Also, the network structure may be a planar mesh structure in which specific polygons having one or more types of atomic arrangement are linked to each other, or a structure in which specific polyhedrons share their vertices, edges, faces, etc., with each other to form a three dimensional skeleton structure.

The first silica wet gel may serve as not only a basic skeleton of the silica aerogel to be finally obtained by the production method of the present invention and but also a silica structure that functions as the frame of the network structure. The present invention may provide a mechanically more stable silica aerogel by organically bonding the second silica wet gel to the first wet gel which serves as the basic skeleton. Thus, the resultant silica aerogel may have more improved resistance to the shrinkage of the pores during a drying process, thereby enabling a low-density aerogel to be synthesized.

The first water glass solution may be a diluted solution which is a mixture obtained by adding distilled water to water glass, and the water glass may be sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃), which is an alkali silicate salt obtained by meting silicon dioxide (SiO₂) and alkali.

The first water glass solution may contain silicon dioxide (SiO₂) in an amount of 2 to 11 wt %, more specifically 3 to 9 wt %. When the silicon dioxide in the first water glass solution is contained in an amount less than the above range, the first silica wet gel, which serves as a basic skeleton of the silica aerogel of the present invention, may not be properly formed. When the silicon dioxide is contained in an amount higher than the above range, the specific surface area of the prepared first silica wet gel may be excessively decreased.

The acid catalyst may serve to form a reaction environment such that the reaction (sol-gel reaction) may proceed readily. For example, the acid catalyst may control the reaction environment such that the above-described acidity (pH) becomes.

The acid catalyst may be added in an amount such that the molar ratio of the acid catalyst to the silicon dioxide in the first water glass solution may be 0.2 to 1.5, more specifically 0.5 to 1, or may be added in an amount such that the acidity (pH) reaches the above-described range.

The acid catalyst is not particularly limited to, but may be, for example, at least one selected from the group consisting of hydrochloride acid, nitric acid, acetic acid, sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid, and more specifically acetic acid.

A production method according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include performing a step of aging the first silica wet gel produced after the reaction of step 1).

The aging may be a step in which the silica wet gel is left standing for 1 hour to 10 hours at 50 to 90° C. According to the production method of the present invention, the network structure inside the first silica wet gel may be formed more firmly by subjecting to the aging after the production of the first silica wet gel, so that the first silica wet gel may be optimized to serve as a basic skeleton having enhanced mechanical stability. Accordingly, the first silica wet gel may be more suitable for the production of a low-density silica aerogel of the present invention.

In addition, a step of pulverizing the aged first silica wet gel may be further performed. The further pulverizing is to allow the second water glass solution to be better mixed and reacted with the first silica wet gel.

Step 2) according to an embodiment of the present invention may be a production step of forming the second silica wet gel. Specifically, an acid catalyst and a second water glass solution which is a precursor of the second silica wet gel are added to the prepared first silica wet gel, and the resultant mixture is stirred to produce a solution in which the first silica wet gel is dispersed.

The second water glass solution may contain silicon dioxide in an amount of 0.01 to 11 wt %, more specifically 1 to 6 wt %. When the silicon dioxide in the second water glass solution is contained in the amount less than the above range, the second wet gel may not be organically bonded to the first wet gel. When the silicon dioxide in the second water glass solution is contained in the amount higher than the above range, the pore structure of the produced second silica wet gel may be reduced to excessively decrease the specific surface area.

In order to produce a silica aerogel of the present invention having enhanced mechanical properties, the first silica wet gel serving as a basic skeleton is first produced, and thereafter the second silica wet gel is organically bonded to the first silica wet gel. Thus, the concentration ratio between the first and second water solutions, which are silica precursors of the first and second silica wet gels, is needed to be adjusted to an appropriate range.

Therefore, the silicon dioxide in the first and second water glass solutions of the present invention may be adjusted such that the concentration ratio becomes 1:1 to 1100:1, specifically 1:1 to 100:1, more specifically 1:1 to 10:1, and even more specifically 1:1 to 5:1. When the concentration of the silicon dioxide in the second water glass solution is lower than the above range, structure reinforcement is weakened and thus the shrinkage of pores may be relatively increased in the drying process. When the concentration of the silicon dioxide in the second water glass solution is higher than the above range, the proportion of the second silica wet gel becomes excessively higher than that of the first silicon wet gel, and thus a more mechanically stable silica aerogel may be difficult to form.

In addition, by adjusting the concentration ratio between silicon dioxides in the water glass solutions, which are silica precursors, to be added in each step, the physical properties of a silica aerogel, for example, the tap density of the finally produced silicon aerogel may also be controlled.

The acid catalyst added in step 2) according to an embodiment of the present invention may react with a surface modifier in the surface modifier solution to be described later to serve to activate the decomposition of the surface modifier. Accordingly, surface modification reaction may be improved, and gelation may be induced by increasing the pH with the acceleration of ammonia production. The acid catalyst added in step 2) is not particularly limited, and may be the same as or different from the acid catalyst added in step 1). Specifically, the acid catalyst added in step 2) may be nitric acid, and in this case, the acid catalyst may be added in an amount such that the molar ratio of the acid catalyst to the silicon dioxide in the second water glass solution becomes 1 to 3.

Step 3) according to an embodiment of the present invention is a step of forming a second silica wet gel, and may be performed by adding a surface modifier solution to the solution in which the first silica wet gel is dispersed and causing a reaction.

The surface modifier solution may be prepared by adding the surface modifier to a nonpolar organic solvent and then mixing. In this case, the concentration of the surface modifier in the surface modifier solution may be 0.1 to 4M. That is, the surface modifier solution may be prepared by adding 0.1 to 0.4M of the surface modifier to the nonpolar organic solvent and then mixing.

The surface modifier may be at least one selected from the group consisting of trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS), hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS), methyltrimethoxysilane, trimethylethoxysilane, ethyltriethoxysilane, and phenyltriethoxysilane, and more specifically, may be hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS).

The nonpolar organic solvent may be at least one selected from the group consisting of hexane, heptane, toluene and xylene.

In addition, the surface modifier solution may be added in an amount such that the molar ratio of the surface modifier to the silicon dioxide in the first water glass solution becomes 0.05 to 20, more specifically 0.5 to 10. When the surface modifier solution is added in an amount such that the molar ratio is less than 0.05, the amount of the surface modifier capable of reacting with a silanol group (Si—OH) is relatively smaller than that of the silanol group (Si—OH) in the water glass solution, thereby causing the surface modification reactivity to be lowered and making surface modification not be readily performed. Therefore, the silanol group which is not surface-modified during drying involves in a condensation reaction, so that the pore size of the finally produced silica aerogel may become small, and a porous structure may not be achieved. In addition, when the surface modifier solution is added in an amount such that the molar ratio is more than 20, there exists a large amount of residual surface modifiers not participating in the surface modification reaction, so that expensive surface modifier may be wasted and economical efficiency may thus be poor.

Meanwhile, step 2) and step 3) according to an embodiment of the present invention may be performed simultaneously or sequentially. That is, the second water glass solution, the acid catalyst and the surface modifier solution may be simultaneously added to the reactor; alternatively, the second water glass solution and the acid catalyst may be added to the reactor, followed by addition of the surface modifier solution.

More specifically, however, the surface modifier solution may be added at a time when the internal temperature of the reactor reaches 25 to 95° C. after the second water glass solution and the acid catalyst are added to the reactor.

When the second water glass solution and the acid catalyst are added to the first silica wet gel, the second water glass solution and the acid catalyst do not react with the first silica wet gel. However, when the surface modifier solution is subsequently added, the surface modifier is decomposed by the acid catalyst to generate ammonia, and pH is raised to trigger gelation. That is, the gelation of the second water glass solution starts within a few minutes after the addition of the surface modifier solution, and, from a thermodynamic perspective, it is thus more efficient to add the surface modifier solution in a state in which the internal temperature of the reactor has been raised for achieving quick gelation and surface modification.

That is, after the second water glass solution and acid catalyst are added to the reactor, the internal temperature of the reactor is raised to the above range, and then the surface modifier solution may be added to carry out a reaction. In this case, the reactor may be a reactor having a stirrer, and the reaction may be performed with stirring. The stirring is not particularly limited but may be performed at a speed of 50 rpm to 700 rpm.

In step 3) according to an embodiment of the present invention, gelation, solvent exchange, and surface modification may be performed simultaneously.

Specifically, the second water glass solution containing the acid catalyst and the surface modifier solution are mixed and reacted, so that the decomposition of the surface modifier in the surface modifier solution is activated by the acid catalyst to generate ammonia. Therefore, the pH in the reactor is raised due to the ammonia, and a basic environment may be created, which may be lead to the gelation of the second water glass solution.

In addition, the solvent exchange of the second silica wet gel may be performed by the nonpolar organic solvent included in the surface modifier solution, and at the same time, the surface modification reaction of the second silica wet gel may be promoted, and the diffusion of the surface modifier solution into the previously prepared first silica wet gel may also promote the solvent exchange of the first wet gel and the surface modification reaction.

When gelation and surface modification are simultaneously performed as in the production of the second silica wet gel, the efficiency of the surface modification reaction is higher than that in the case in which surface modification is performed subsequently after gelation. Thus, there may be also an advantage that a silica aerogel having high hydrophobicity may be produced.

Therefore, in step 3), by using the previously prepared first silica wet gel as a basic skeleton, the second silica wet gel is formed by gelation of the second water glass solution. At the same time, solvent exchange and surface modification may be performed to form a hydrophobic silica wet gel having a structure in which the second silica wet gel is organically bonded to the first silica wet gel which serves as the basic skeleton.

As such, the structure of the silica wet gel is formed through a plurality of steps, so that mechanical properties are further enhanced compared with that of the case of forming the structure of the silica wet gel at a time.

Meanwhile, the production method of the present invention may further include a step of adding ammonium hydroxide during step 3) in order to further promote the galation and the surface modification reaction.

Specifically, the ammonium hydroxide may be added after the total amount of the surface modifier solution used in the reaction is added to the reactor, and more specifically, the ammonium hydroxide may be involved in the reaction by being added at a time when the pH in the reactor reaches 5 to 10 after the total amount of the surface modifier solution is added to the reactor, or may be involved in the reaction by being added after the solvent exchange is completed.

In this case, the time when the pH reaches the above range may vary with the concentration of silicon dioxide in the second water glass solution. For example, when the concentration of silicon dioxide in the second water glass solution is 1 to 5 wt %, the time may be 30±3 minutes just after the total amount of the surface modifier solution is added to the reactor.

In addition, the time when the solvent exchange is completed indicates a time when the liquid which fills pores in the silica wet gel is exchanged with an organic solvent used in water, and may be observed from whether the silica wet gel is dispersed or not when the silica wet gel generated during the reaction is extracted and placed into a water phase or an organic solvent phase.

In addition, the added amount of the ammonium hydroxide is not particularly limited as long as the gelation and the surface modification reaction may be readily carried out without causing problems due to other additional reactions. However, for example, the ammonium hydroxide may be added in an amount such that the pH in the reactor after the addition of ammonium hydroxide is increased by 5 to 57% of the pH in the reactor before the addition thereof. For instance, when the pH in the reactor before the addition of the ammonium hydroxide is 7, the ammonium hydroxide may be added in an amount such that the pH in the reactor becomes 7.35 to 11.

Specifically, the ammonium hydroxide may be added, within an amount adjustable to meet the pH range above, in an amount such that the molar ratio of the ammonium hydroxide to the silicon dioxide in the first water glass solution becomes 0.5 to 25.

As described above, the production method according to an embodiment of the present invention may improve the surface modification reaction by further adding ammonium hydroxide during the reaction of step 3) and involving in the reaction. Thus, the silica aerogel having high hydrophobicity may be produced without using a large amount of the expensive surface modifier.

In step 4) according to an embodiment of the present invention, a step of drying a silica wet gel containing the first silica wet gel and the second silica wet gel may be performed in order to form a silica aerogel.

In this case, the production method according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include performing a washing step before the drying step. The washing, which is for removing impurities (sodium ions, unreacted substances, by-products, etc.) generated during the reaction to obtain a hydrophobic silica aerogel with high purity, may be performed through a dilution process or an exchange process using a nonpolar organic solvent.

Specifically, the dilution process may indicate a solvent dilution process, and may be a process in which a nonpolar organic solvent may be further added to the reactor after the surface modification reaction of step 3) to allow the excessive amount of the nonpolar organic solvent to be present in the reactor. In addition, the exchange process may indicate a solvent exchange process, and may be a process in which steps of discharging an aqueous solution layer in the reactor after the surface modification reaction of step 3), then introducing the nonpolar organic solvent, and discharging again the separated aqueous solution layer are repeatedly performed.

More specifically, the production method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be performed by additionally adding the nonpolar organic solvent to the silica wet gel containing the first silica wet gel and the second silica wet gel, and then stirring the mixture for 20 minutes to 1 hour.

The drying step in the production method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be performed by a supercritical drying process or an ambient drying process, and more specifically, the ambient drying process may be performed under the conditions of a temperature of 100 to 190° C. for 1 hour to 4 hours.

Thus, the production method according to an embodiment of the present invention is advantageous in that there is no need of an expensive high-pressure apparatus, and drying may thus be performed for a shorter time within 6 hours at a lower production cost than as in case of using the conventional supercritical process, thereby improving the productivity and economical efficiency of the silica aerogel.

The ambient drying process may be disadvantageous in that the pore structure is easily shrunk and cracked due to a high capillary force and a difference in solvent extraction speed. However, the silica aerogel produced by the production method of the present invention may have particularly enhanced mechanical properties, and thus the wet gel may be dried without shrinkage while maintaining the structure of the wet gel without any change. Accordingly, there is a significance in that the disadvantage of the ambient drying process may be solved.

In addition, the present invention provides a hydrophobic silica aerogel produced by the production method.

The hydrophobic silica aerogel according to an embodiment of the present invention is characterized by having a specific surface area of 600 m²/g to 1,000 m²/g, and the hydrophobic silica aerogel may have a tap density of 0.03 to 0.4 g/ml, or 0.030 to 0.070 g/ml.

As described above, in the method for producing a silica aerogel according to an embodiment of the present invention, there is an effect in that gelation, solvent exchange and surface modification may be performed in a single step to reduce a production time, thereby remarkably increasing productivity and economic efficiency. Furthermore, the first silica wet gel is first produced by using the first water glass solution, and then the second water glass solution is additionally added to produce the second silica wet gel organically bonded to the first silica wet gel which serves as a basic skeleton. Resultantly, a silica aerogel with enhanced mechanical properties is formed to improve the resistance to shrinkage in ambient drying, and thus a low-density silica aerogel may be achieved. Therefore, this method is expected to be widely used in the related industrial fields.

Hereinafter, examples of the present invention will be described in detail so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the examples set forth herein.

Example 1

A first water glass solution (12.5 g of water glass) in an amount of 4 wt % (a silicon dioxide content) and 3 mL of an acetic acid were put into a reactor, and were gelled to form a silica wet gel, and then the first silica wet gel was aged in an oven at 50° C. Thereafter, the first silica wet gel was pulverized by using a pulverizer to prepare a first silica wet gel slurry.

1 wt % of a second water glass solution (3.5 g of water glass) and 10 g of nitric acid were added to the first silica wet gel slurry, and the temperature was maintained while being stirred in the reactor at 55° C.

Thereafter, a surface modifier solution obtained by adding and stirring 23 g of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) to 200 mL of n-hexane to carry out a reaction for preparing a second silica wet gel. After initiation of the reaction, the silica wet gel in an aqueous solution layer was surface-modified and floated onto the top of the organic solvent layer of n-hexane. Then, in order to adjust the degree of surface modification, 3 mL of ammonium hydroxide was added at 30 minutes after the addition of surface modifier solution. When the surface modification was completed and a hydrophobic silica wet gel was completely floated onto the organic solvent layer of the n-hexane, 200 mL of n-hexane was further added, and then the aqueous solution layer remaining in the lower portion of the reactor was discharged through an outlet of the reactor. After 2 hours, the silica wet gel dispersed in an n-hexane layer was completely dried in a forced convection oven at 150° C. for 6 hours to produce a hydrophobic silica aerogel.

Examples 2 to 7

Silica aerogels were produced in the same manner as in Example 1, except that first and second water glass solutions, an acetic acid and a nitric acid were used in respective amounts described in Table 1 below.

Comparative Example 1

Silica aerogels were produced in the same manner as in Example 1, except for not adding a second water glass solution.

Comparative Examples 2 to 5

Silica aerogels were produced in the same manner as in Comparative Example 1, except that a first water glass solution, an acetic acid and a nitric acid were used in respective amounts described in Table 1 below.

Experimental Example 1: Measurement of Tap Density and Carbon Content

For comparative analysis of physical properties of hydrophobic silica aerogels produced in Examples 1 to 7 and Comparative Examples 1 to 5, the tap density (g/mL) and carbon content of each aerogel of each aerogel were measured, and the results were shown in Table 1 below.

1) Tap Density (g/mL)

Tap density was measured by using a tap density measuring instrument (STAV II, Engelsman AG). Specifically, each of the aerogels was placed into a standardized cylinder (25 mL) and weighted, then the cylinder was fixed to the tap density measuring instrument, a noise damping hood was closed, and 2500-times tapping was set. After the tapping measurement, the volume of each aerogel in the cylinder was measured, and a ratio of the previously measured weight to the above volume was calculated to measure the density.

2) Carbon Content (Wt %)

The carbon content was measured by using a carbon analyzer (Carbon-Sulfur Analyzer CS-2000, Eltra)

TABLE 1 Formation of Formation of first second silica wet silica wet gel gel Silicon Acetic Silicon Nitric Surface Tap Carbon Dioxide Acid Dioxide Acid Modifier Density Contents (wt %) (g) (wt %) (g) (g) (g/mL) (%) Example 1 4 3 1 10 23 0.032 11.2 Example 2 4 3 2 11 23 0.043 11.7 Example 3 4 3 3 12 23 0.048 12.1 Example 4 5 3.6 1 10 23 0.046 11.8 Example 5 6 4.6 1 10 23 0.053 11.5 Example 6 7 5.6 1 10 23 0.066 11.6 Example 7 8 5.9 1 10 23 0.070 11.8 Comparative 4 3 — 7 23 0.055 9.3 Example 1 Comparative 5 3.6 — 7 23 0.063 9.2 Example 2 Comparative 6 4.6 — 7 23 0.073 9.5 Example 3 Comparative 7 5.6 — 7 23 0.081 10.3 Example 4 Comparative 8 5.9 — 7 23 0.085 10.1 Example 5

As shown in Table 1, it can be ascertained that the hydrophobic silica aerogels of Examples 1 to 7 produced by the production method according to an embodiment of the present invention exhibit a lower tap density as a whole than the hydrophobic silica aerogels of Comparative Examples 1 to 5 in which the water glass solution having the same concentration as the concentration of the water glass solution of the Examples is added.

Generally, as the concentration of the added silica precursor increases, the tap density of the silica aerogel generally increases. However, although the silica aerogel produced by the production method of the present invention is obtained by adding the second water glass solution and thus adding more silica precursors than the Comparative Examples, it can be ascertained that the tap density of the silica aerogel of the present invention is lower rather than that of the Comparative Examples. When the total amount of the silica precursors in the first and second water glass solutions of the Examples is compared with the amount of the silica precursor of the Comparative Example, it can be seen that the difference is significantly meaningful.

In addition, as a result of analyzing a carbon content indirectly in order to investigate the surface-modified amount, it can be seen that the carbon content in the case of introducing the step of forming the second silica wet gel became higher as a whole than that in the case of forming only the first silica wet gel. From this result, it can be seen that the number of methyl functional groups formed on the surface of the silica is increased, so that the number of hydrophobic groups on the surface is increased.

The above results show that the mechanical properties of the silica aerogel produced by the production method of the present invention were enhanced, and the degree of the surface modification was thus improved in comparison with the conventional production method. Accordingly, the production method of the present invention shows that the shrinkage of pores, which may occur during drying, was decreased to thereby form a low-density silica aerogel.

The foregoing description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive. 

1. A silica aerogel having a tap density of 0.030 to 0.070 g/mL.
 2. The silica aerogel of claim 1, wherein the silica aerogel has a tap density of 0.032 to 0.070 g/mL.
 3. The silica aerogel of claim 1, wherein the silica aerogel has a carbon content of 11.2 to 12.1 wt %. 